Day Three. 8:47 AM.

Woohyun sat in the Boss' office, silently staring at the computer on his desk. About twenty-five minutes ago, the head secretary had called him down, saying that there was something Kangta needed to speak with him about. According to her, it was a pretty urgent matter. But really, it couldn't have been that  urgent, seeing as Woohyun had been waiting for nearly half a freakin' hour.

'And it's not like I have anything better to do. No, not like I have a new murder case to investigate. Aren't you the one always lecturing me about time management, Boss? Maybe you should listen to your own words every once in a while and not waste my time.'

Just as Woohyun was contemplating returning to his cubicle, the door creaked open.

"Hey, Kangta, sorry I'm late. I was talking to Dongwoo about the girl's autopsy- Oh. It's you."

The dark-haired inspector didn't bother looking back. He knew exactly who it was that had joined him in the office. "Sunggyu. Fancy meeting you here."

He could feel his partner's gaze on the back of his head. "Woohyun. What are you doing here?"

Woohyun finally glanced back and gave him a bored expression. "Waiting for Kangta. What does it look like I'm doing?" Leave it to Sunggyu to ask the obvious questions.

Slowly, Sunggyu walked over to where his companion was sitting. He pulled out the chair next to him and seated himself. "I meant, what did he call you down for. Or did he not tell you? Kangta didn't say what this was about when I was paged."

The younger male inwardly raised a brow. Normally, when Woohyun gave a sarcastic quip to any of his partner's inquiries, Sunggyu would either sigh or roll his eyes in exasperation. But today, the brunet's tone was merely civilized and mild-mannered. Although, truthfully speaking, it was to be expected. Ever since their little argument two days ago, Sunggyu had been nothing but polite and rather distant with him. It was almost like he was avoiding him, or treating Woohyun like a total stranger. Which was fine by him. At least this way, he wouldn't have to hear any annoying lectures on his so-called stupidity and reckless behaviour.

Seriously, Woohyun didn't care. He was perfectly fine without his partner. Let  Kim Sunggyu ignore him and have fun with that Luhan guy-

The door swung open again, interrupting his train of thoughts. "Morning, you two. Sorry to keep you waiting. I was caught up with a phone call from the Busan station." Ahn Chilhyun, or Kangta, as he preferred to be called, strode inside of his office. Tall, lanky, and with a hairstyle that could have used a good t, he didn't quite look the part of a CSI branch director. But as the saying went, never judge a book by its cover. Woohyun knew for a fact that Kangta was more than capable of handling things at the Seoul headquarters.

The Boss plopped down in his chair. "I'll make this fast for you. This morning, as soon as I came in, I received a call from an anonymous person. It sounded like a woman's voice, though thanks to her hysterical tone, I can't be too sure. Anyway, she wanted to report another murder. Your killer's struck again."

"What?"  exclaimed Sunggyu, breaking out of his mild-mannered shell. Woohyun, on the other hand, simply gazed at the director with a raised eyebrow.

"I know," Kangta grimaced. "I was shocked, as well. I'm guessing that the woman who called us found the body on a morning jog or something. Why she didn't report it to the police first, I'm not too sure."

"How do you know it's the same killer?" Woohyun finally spoke up, narrowing his eyes. "You said that it's our guy who did the deed, correct?"

Kangta acknowledged his subordinate's sharp observation. "I read Jung Ara's post-mortem report last night," he responded. "Long and shallow lacerations covering the skin, right? That's exactly how the new victim was found. Only this  one is a middle-aged male, not a sixteen year old female teenager. I don't know what the connection is between these two victims- or if there's even one at all- but I have a feeling it won't be easy finding it.

"Another thing," he continued. The Boss ran his fingers through his hair, pushing away the strands that had fallen into his eyes. "The caller, whoever she was, had a vital clue for us. It seems that she caught a glimpse of who she believes was the killer before he ran away. She kept babbling about a 'heavyset but muscular man' wearing all black clothing. Of course, the person she described could just be a passerby, but keep his profile in mind. It's the only possible lead we have for the murderer right now."

"Heavyset and muscular, huh..." Sunggyu exhaled a deep breath. "Well, that only leaves about half the male population. But are you kidding me? Another murder?  We've barely gotten started on the first case, but now you're throwing another one in our hands?"

Kangta sent him a sharp, but sympathetic look. "I wish I was joking. But sorry, there's no helping it. Besides, it's not like I wanted  this to happen. I would have been much happier if there were no cases to assign to you at all. But you're right." He picked up a pen and twirled it in his fingers.

"Two murders is too much for you guys to investigate on your own. No, don't give me that look, Woohyun. I know you wouldn't be able to handle it." Putting his writing utensil down, the director glanced from the unimpressed expression on Woohyun's face to the tense, frustrated one Sunggyu wore. "That's why I've assigned another agent to help you out. I've already told him the details, so as soon as he arrives, you three can leave-"

At that moment, the door to Kangta's office burst wide open. Sunggyu whipped his head back to see who the new arrival was, but Woohyun didn't bother. Just as he had with Sunggyu, when the visitor spoke, the inspector knew immediately who it was at the door.

"Hey, you punks. Are you ready to go?"

--------

It was an awful sight to behold. Just like with Jung Ara, the new victim had been stripped and cut all over his body. The only differences were that, as Kangta had mentioned, this poor soul had been a middle-aged man, and they found him lying in a deserted park rather than an alleyway.

It was a good thing Woohyun wasn't the type of person who got queasy easily. He couldn't really afford to, since he was a crime scene agent and all, but anyway, it had never been in his personality to feel nauseous at the sight of dead bodies. He simply stared at the man's corpse, making little notes and observations in his mind.

His and Sunggyu's new partner, however, wasn't so shy about sharing his opinion.

"I can see why Kangta looked so grim this morning." Kneeling down to get a better look at the body, Bang Yongguk tsked. "This is not  a nice guy you're after. Good luck finding the murderer, you two."

"What do you mean, good luck?" Sunggyu crossed his arms. "You're supposed to be helping us with that, remember?"

Yongguk let out a bark of laughter. "Oh, right. I keep forgetting I was assigned to your case. All those days in the shooting range have made me forget the fact that I'm a crime scene agent, as well."

"Here's your chance to show us how good your investigation skills are," commented Woohyun. Ignoring the brunet on his left, he sent Yongguk a light-hearted grin. "Didn't you tell me a few days ago how easily you solved that case about the dead librarian?"

The weaponry agent chuckled once more as he stood up. "Challenge accepted, punk. And I'll keep reminding you over and over again, that case was a piece of cake for me. It's not like you could have solved it any faster than I did." Teeth flashed in a gummy smile, he addressed his next words to the third man of the group.

"Isn't that right, Sunggyu? You know your partner better than I do, after all."

Sunggyu didn't even look at his companions. "Whatever you say. Listen, I'm going to go scope out the rest of this area. You two stay here and wait for forensics. Dongwoo shouldn't take too long getting here." With that, he began purposefully striding away, not even waiting to hear their responses.

Yongguk watched as the brunet walked over to the edge of the park path. "So. What did you do this time, punk?"

"Hmm?" Woohyun was still wearing his little smile. But anyone who was looking would have realized it didn't quite reach his eyes. He knew Yongguk had noticed that right away. It was nearly impossibly to lie to the artillery agent and get away with it. Still, that didn't mean he couldn't try. "What are you talking about, Yongguk?"

"Drop the dumb guy act, Woohyun." Yongguk jerked his head in Sunggyu's direction. "How stupid do you think I am? It's obvious that your partner's been avoiding you ever since we got here. Maybe even longer. Anyone with eyes can see it- although, you, I'm not so sure about. The only question is, why? What did you do?"

The younger man gazed down at the corpse. It was hard to tell because of the multitude of scars, but the expression on the man's face was terrified, aghast, like he knew his death was coming and he had no way of escaping it. "I'm surprised you even have to ask," he finally said, still in the same light tone as before. "Aren't you the one Sunggyu apparently goes to whenever he feels the need to complain about me?"

"You got that right, punk," was Yongguk's reply. "But that doesn't mean I know everything. He comes to me to rant and I read between the lines, but there are still a lot of things he keeps to himself."

Woohyun nodded mock-seriously. "You could have fooled me."

Yongguk tilted his head, but didn't say anything.

After about a minute of standing in silence, the inspector let out a laugh. It was quiet, humourless, and- dare he say it- almost bitter-sounding, even to his own two ears. "What do you want me to say, Yongguk? That I'm sorry? That I didn't mean to hurt poor Sunggyu's feelings? I can't help it. I can't change who I am. You of all people should know how I feel about this, and exactly how much I don't care."

"I'm not judging you, Nam Woohyun." The weaponry agent appraised him with a sharp eye. "And I'm not about to interfere in your relationship with him, either. All I want to know is this: is it that hard trying to understand your partner's feelings? Do you really not get what he's saying behind the scolding and the lecturing? If you just listened  to his words for once, maybe you would see things from his point of view."

For a moment, Woohyun simply stared at his friend. There wasn't anything in his expression, nothing to hint at what his personal and heavily-guarded thoughts were. Then, just as Yongguk was about to turn around to join Sunggyu, another bland smile slowly stretched across his mouth.

"You know, when we were first assigned to this case, Sunggyu compared me to the Tin Man. That Oz character without a heart." He glanced back down at the lifeless man's body. "Said I was exactly like him, only I wasn't incapable of loving. Just living. And you know what?"

Lifting his gaze, Woohyun stared steadily back into the serious eyes of Bang Yongguk. "He was right. I don't  know how to live. Call me an ignorant fool, but I couldn't care less whether I lived to tomorrow or died today. Don't bother asking me why. I won't have an answer for you there."

"Won't  answer, or can't?"  Yongguk asked in a surprisingly soft voice.

To that, Woohyun also did not have a response.